Lot’s happening in November.

A Presidential election, Thanksgiving, the Holiday harp gig extravaganza lurking around the corner at the end of the month and cold and cold and cold and dark and dark and dark! And I can’t wait! Nothing like being immersed in one’s duty to the nation, each other and one’s self! Each November event gives us an opportunity to churn the soil, to plant seeds in ourselves and nurture the dark, quiet moments inside. It’s a great time to practice, both music and yoga, to study, to read and to contemplate.

I find myself reflecting on a yogic principal called dharma this fall. It’s a principal that comes up again and again, both in classes and in texts and it’s a principal that is deeply embedded, in slightly different forms, in all our cultures and religions. It’s a Sanskrit word that means a moral, or regulatory order of the universe. It’s that which supports the natural laws of the universe. Also in yogic usage, it implies how one performs one’s duty and maintains harmony within one’s community. It’s a choice, or freedom that aligns one’s attitudes and behaviors. It’s a responsibility you have to life and by aligning yourself to your highest duty you become stronger and healthier, enhancing your community, family and self.

Dharma is civic duty, too.

One of our biggest duties and freedoms as citizens is to vote. Feeling a part of a community is essential to our nature of connecting to each other as human beings. Our dharma as members of society is to uphold the moral and civic laws of our society, to teach these ethics and orders to our children, and to enhance the beauty and safety of the places in which we live. Voting is a way of connecting to one’s dharma, one’s truth and aligning to a common good. By voting you participate in the betterment of your established community.

In this same way we can enjoy our common Thanksgiving holiday as a nation. Going through the rituals of the holiday in a mindful and dharmic way we are more aware of life’s abundance and the celebration that surrounds our experience of the ritual. It can take on even deeper meanings when we work in our communities to eradicate hunger and homelessness. There’s a great energy when we celebrate a ritual in which the entire nation takes part.

Embracing our dharma in these ways make sense.
But what about when we are doing our work as harpists?

Each one of us plays the harp following a unique dharma, following our own right way. In taking these individual paths, we uphold the whole of the beauty that is our instrument, and recognize our individuality makes it so. When we are aware that our playing affects all that are listening in a ‘right’ way, lifting the community of listeners to a higher consciousness, the everyday gig can turn into a ritual of deeper meaning, we are strengthened by our life’s purpose, our dharma. Now we can really understand what our gifts bring to the holiday season. Living our talents, they take on an important role, even at the holiday office party. This also supports the entire community of harpists, each upholding the practices that maintain the highest, the common good, and that sustain the art.

Coming into November, we can look forward to what the fall and winter brings us. Taking time to nurture ourselves, we can be healthy, peaceful and surrounded in light, even in the cold dark days of November. Practice deeply, completely, fully, thoughtfully and follow your own dharma.